by Mary Rupert
Piper School Board incumbent Tom Beebe lost by only one vote, after votes were canvassed this morning by the Wyandotte County Board of Canvassers.
Election Commissioner Bruce Newby said no election outcomes were changed after canvassing today. Official results are posted on the Election Office website at www.wycokck.org/election.
The unofficial results last week had Neal Palmer leading Tom Beebe, 660 to 657. After today’s canvass, Newby said two provisional ballots took Beebe up to 659, not enough to win election. Beebe had served eight years on the Piper School Board.
As other candidates found out recently, “a one-vote difference is real hard to make up,” Newby said.
He recalled another Piper school board contest several years ago that resulted in a tie and a coin flip.
Winning election on the Piper school board were newcomers Jeb Vader, 959; Ashley Biondi, 936; and incumbents Lisa Sullivan, 675; and Neal Palmer, 660.
In all, 64 provisional votes were counted today, and the election turnout officially was 15.37 percent, average for a spring election without a UG mayoral contest, he said.
Something else that is unusual about the election this year is that no one ran for the Wolcott Drainage District, and no one was elected there. There were no write-in votes, Newby said.
Only five or six people were eligible to vote in the Wolcott drainage district, because people on the ballot and voters also have to own property there, he said.
Newby said they are now waiting for a legal opinion on what will happen to the Wolcott Drainage District. There will be a decision on whether the drainage district has become dormant, and whether the Unified Government Commission now will have to take up its duties, he said.
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